Losers Like Us
by Lane Render
Summary: Time for McKinley High to bring together a new generation of New Directions! Love, hurt, drama, friendship, and humor ensues as a new group of kids tries to overcome the troubles of High School. And that's what's happening on Glee!
1. The Start of Something

_AN: Yeah, so this is pretty much the same storyline but I am re-working it because I have issues with the way I wrote it before. You can re-read or wait for me to get to where I was, your choice. _

_ And just a little reminder, this is made of mostly OCs. For the sake of the story, and what I had planned, season 3 can be assumed to be irrelevant, though some season 3 canon will probably make its way in. One major thing is that the New Directions are all gone, due to the fact that I had created this assuming they were all in the same grade. Woops._

_ One with the show!_

* * *

><p><span>Losers Like Us<span>

Chapter One

The Start of Something

_Is this the end or just the start of__something really, really beautiful__  
><em>_Wrapped up and disguised as something really, really ugly?_

**-Voxtrot-**

William Shuester hadn't quite realized the problem until it was too late. What exactly was this problem? His entire Glee club was in the same grade, and had therefore all graduated. All his talented kids who he was so proud of, who had made it so far in the years he had them, were gone, and the Glee club was left with nothing. There was not a single kid in that school who would want to join, it had always been a struggle when the club needed new recruits. No one wanted to go through the social suicide and they were kids, who could blame them?

And then he realized something. He realized how perfectly, beautifully separate the middle school was from the high school. He realized that unless there were older siblings involved, the incoming freshmen wouldn't know any better. Knowing what he did about the troubles the club had caused the old members, Will felt a bit of guilt.

But what could he do other than target the freshmen? Of course this time, he'd remember to get more of them when the next year came 'round.

* * *

><p><span>Davy's POV<span>

My morning was a rushed one. I had stayed up far too late the night before and slept straight through my alarm clock. Thank God for Mira, really, the girl knew me all too well and had called me after my lack of response to her "Good morning, Freshie!" text.

Still, she had that magical ability to get ready in quite literally no time, which was a gift that I had not been graced with. And so I stripped quickly on my way to the shower and ended up trying to shampoo and brush my teeth without eating the shampoo by accident. Out of the shower I had no time for breakfast, not if I wanted to be out of the house before my mom was up and getting ready for work. And I really wanted to be out of the house before that.

I lived close to the school, and to my male best friend, so I made my way in the dark morning toward his house, while trying to figure out if I would look utterly ridiculous in my multicolored sweater and skinny jeans.

Who am I kidding, I definitely looked ridiculous. I should have thrown on a band tee instead. The kids at school already knew my habits and this was toned down but really, it was best not to be assaulted first day in, especially since there would be _new _kids for me to give a bad impression. Too late for that, though. Anyway, I was probably just panicking. All I could think was the word "freshman" and it rang through my head like an annoying telemarketer who just wouldn't stop calling in the middle of the night. Damn, my mind was annoying.

I reached Riley's door as I worked myself up to a mental breakdown. I sent him a text message to alert him of my arrival, so as not to wake his mother. God knows I did not want the wrath of that woman upon me. As much as I loved Mrs. Stewart, she could be utterly terrifying.

In seconds Riley was out the door and walking beside me on the trek to the school. He took a look at me and rolled his eyes, signing to me, "_You're pale."_

Alright, let's clear this up now. The boy's mute, always has been. There's no story to it, no traumatic event that had stopped him from talking, no brain injury that prevented it. He was simply born with an inability to speak. So he learned sign language, as did the people around him, because it was the easiest way to communicate. While he could get himself into a specialized school, he chose not to and so the school system generally did its best with him. Riley had been my best friend since before I could even talk, and I ended up learning sign language pretty much along with him. My previously mentioned female best friend had been acquired along the way and was around long enough to understand a lot of it. A fourth party had been added in the previous year, and he was finally beginning to catch on enough to not constantly need translation.

I responded to Riley's observation of my complexion with, "Not as pale as you, vampire."

Riley rolled his eyes and followed up with_,_ and I'm going to have to take liberties as you don't exactly sign out every word_, "I'm always pale, dick. You're panicking, aren't you?"_

"So what if I am, it's perfectly reasonable. I don't care what they say, high school is a million times worse than middle school. And my middle school years were shit," I reminded him.

He shrugged. _"Well we've pulled through, right? No need to freak."_

I gave him that one. There was a whole mess that had gone down in the past years, and we managed through that. Compared to it, managing the first day of high school, at least, wasn't too big of a challenge. Well it shouldn't be.

Riley and I arrived at the high school around the same time that the school buses had started letting kids off. Lima was a small town but there just seemed to be a huge number of students milling about and piling into the school, pulling up in cars and greeting those friends that you just don't hang out with over the summer, giggling and laughing over inside jokes and making out with significant others.

Somehow Mira managed to locate Riley and I in the crowd after her brother dropped her off, because she was bouncing up to us, all of her mahogany hair bouncing around her as her head bobbed with the skip in her step. My favorite female was all smiles and cheers as she chirped out a, "Hello boys!" to Riley and I.

Riley smiled and nodded to her and I responded with a small "Hello."

"Oh you are so freaking out, Davy, stop that," she said, still grinning brightly. "Whatcha think of the outfit?"

"It's nice," I told her automatically. It wasn't a lie. She was wearing her typical style, and the style was cute, casual dark wash jeans that fit her nicely, a pair of fuzzy brown boots, a green turtle neck that offset the color of her hair very nicely, and a beige scarf swooping around her neck.

"I'm not going to get a proper reaction out of you, am I? Whatever, let's go inside."

She and Riley and began to walk before realizing I wasn't following them and stopping. I was staring at the school and I was not just being stubborn, I was paralyzed. I was really quite ashamed of myself, I was usually the one who managed to be all gung-ho about shit. "Hold me, Mira," I choked out as I stared at McKinley High.

"Man up, Davy. And if you really need someone to hang on to, hang on to Lavi. Where is he anyway, he's going to be late," Mira said, placing a hand on her hip and raising an eyebrow.

As if on cue my phone began screaming Adam Lambert lyrics. Picking it up I made a mental note to turn that off before class started. "Hello?"

"Davy! Okay so don't worry, I will be in school, but I'm running late," came the voice from my phone.

"I wasn't overly worried, actually, just irritated that I don't have someone to clutch onto through my panic attack. Did you oversleep again?" I asked the boy on the line.

"Nope, my coffee maker broke. You know I'll crash by fifth period without my coffee."

I let out a laugh. Oh the stories I could tell about that. "Yeah, alright, just hurry up. It's the first day!"

"Yeah, I know, I know, I'll be there! Have fun waiting."

"Oh, I will."

And then, of course, the moment after I hang up and had the phone in my pocket, some bulldozer of a football player shoved into me and knocked me off my feet in such a way that couldn't be anything but intentional. Getting to my feet I groaned, "This is going to be just wonderful." Mira helped me up. Riley was too busy making very rude hand motions and "shouting" things to help. Thank _God_ the words weren't actually coming out of his mouth because I'm sure they would have been awful.

"It'll be fine," Mira assured me. "I mean, you've got me around."

Fine wasn't the way to put it. It might have been fine if it weren't for the Glee club, it would have been fine if I had learned the trouble it could cause me and avoided adding it on top of everything else I would have to deal with, it would have been fine if we had kept our head down and made it through high school that way.

I'm not sure what to call it, wonderful, or terrible. But I do know I don't regret it.

* * *

><p><span>Riley's POV<span>

There are people who treat me like I'm a serial killer because the silence freaks them out. Those people might end up being right on target, because the list of people who I wanted to murder was growing so long that I was going to start having to kill them off, just to keep track of who I wanted to and had to resist killing off.

Maybe if people weren't such dicks I wouldn't have suppressed homicidal tendencies. It's really quite odd though. For all the freaking out that Davy did, he didn't seem to notice quite how much shit people were giving him from the moment he walked into the school. He doesn't really notice anything unless it's done directly to him. All the offhanded gossiping comments just fly over his head. Not mine.

Yeah, I'm protective, but the boy had always been like a brother to me. He was a year older, but I felt like the older one, seeing as how I somehow always ended up having to take care of him. And he wasn't handicapped.- oh excuse me- _handicapable._

What a stupid term. You are what you are.

My desire to commit murder only increased after Lavi had finally arrived, because the bullshit only increased after that. The boys are hardly discreet about themselves, and of course, they shouldn't have to be discreet. But we did live in the middle of nowhere in Ohio.

"I'm here, I'm here, I'm here," Lavi panted out, rushing up to Davy and I after first period, at Davy's locker. The boy was flushed and clearly quite a bit flustered, because he was doing that weird _thing _he did whenever he was flustered, bouncing back and forth from foot to foot in an odd sort of dance. He clearly hadn't stopped at his locker; he still had his peacoat and knit hat on, both of which he disliked wearing indoors.

"Hello, dear," Davy gave him a quick peck which got a few stares that neither of the boys seemed to notice. "Here, you can put your stuff in my locker."

"Thanks a bunch. Take these for a second, would you?" Lavi handed Davy two mugs. "One of those is a coffee for you, by the way. If you smell chocolate, it's yours." Lavi took off his coat and stuffed it in Davy's locker, which caused me to ponder how Lavi had even located Davy's locker if he hadn't even been to his own locker yet.

"Oh my God have I mentioned how much I love you," Dave nearly moaned after taking a long sip from one of the two mugs.

"You could do to mention it more," Lavi responded, taking off the hat. He ran his fingers through the dyed cherry-red hair that fell out of the cap, "Ugh it looks awful, doesn't it, I should have pinned it back."

Davy placed one of the mugs he was holding in Lavi's hand and then took the other in his now free hand. "It looks fine darling. Though, if you keep running you hands through it with these on," Davy held up Lavi's hand, wrapped in knit black fingerless gloves, "it's going to get all static-y."

"Right, of course, where would I be without you?" Lavi pressed his lips up to his boyfriend's.

Sometimes those boys were so sweet they just made my teeth hurt, but instead of ruining the nearly painful to watch moment, I choice to send death glares to all those in the hallway that felt the need to gawk and comment on my best friend and his boyfriend. People are really just idiots.

I nudged Davy, who managed to tear his eyes off his boyfriend long enough for me to sign, _"We'll be late to class."_

"Aw, such a mood killer," Lavi pouted jokingly, "though he is right, we've gotta go."

I smiled warmly at him. It was nice to have someone else learning to read what I said. He smiled back. Davy looked between us and got a grin of his own.

We probably all looked like we had mental issues.

* * *

><p>"I've found it!" Davy walked up to Lavi, Mira, and I at lunch, looking quite triumphant.<p>

"And what is 'it' exactly?" Mira questioned. "You're sanity? It's your sanity, isn't it?"

"Oh thank God, I knew this day would come, I only stuck around because I knew someday he would be a sane person, I just knew it!"

Davy rolled his eyes, taking a seat at the table as Mira and I laughed at Lavi's antics. Or well, I kinda laughed, but no sound ever came out when I laughed.

"Ok well no, it's not my sanity, that is still something to be found around, let's see, never-"

Lavi muttered, "Damn," causing me to snort, one of the few sounds I could actually make.

"-but I did find our high school activity! Seeing as how none of us, bar Riley are very athletic-"

"You're athletic, Davy, you just hate competitive sports," Mira interjected.

"-yes well, if you're done interrupting me I was _saying_, I figured out what we're going to do," Davy leaned in close, causing the three of us to unconsciously follow suit. "Glee club!"

As Davy explained, he got progressively more excited, which caused Lavi to also get all worked up, and Mira, well she was worked up from the moment the words "Glee club" had come out of his mouth. When Davy's excited about something there's no stopping him and he and Lavi were like freaking puppies ready to _piss_ themselves, so of course I got roped in.

Even though I'm mute. And therefore _can't sing_.

We passed through the last periods of the day, with no event, before marching off to the auditorium. Mira, Lavi, and I shuffled into seats as Davy jumped up the steps to the stage and faced the Spanish teacher, Mr. Shuester.

I found myself wondering why there was a Spanish teacher in charge of Glee club instead of a Music teacher. Which led me to wonder if we even _had_ a Music teacher. I also took note of the fact that the auditorium was entirely empty besides my friends and the teacher. I was getting the feeling this might not be the best idea, and I questioned whether Davy had a death wish, which really isn't something unreasonable given his psychiatric history.

Good idea or not, it wasn't like we were going to let potential dickheads get in our way.

"Um, so yeah, I'm Davy. David Render," Davy rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous habit that I recognized, "Should I just like…start?"

"Anytime you're ready," Mr. Shuester said, a kind tone in his voice.

Davy took a deep breath, and as nervous as he seemed to be, went straight into quite the ambitious song, "Pick U Up" by Adam Lambert. What a showoff, though I supposed that's what you're supposed to do for auditions. It wasn't as if Davy didn't have the range for it, he definitely managed it, which is quite impressive, though maybe he didn't hit it quite as well as the original singer that he was so obsessed with. But there was something about Davy…you could tell he wasn't at his peak yet, that he'd only get better with time.

With Davy's finish, Lavi got up, muttering good-naturedly, "Damn, I have to follow that up?" It was quite the act to follow, but Lavi did himself justice, and Mira did just as well.

Davy got up with me to climb up to the stage. He talked as I signed. "My name is Riley Stewart. I'm mute, which would be why Davy's talking for me. Obviously I can't sing, but I can dance and I've been learning to arrange music pretty well and some other stuff."

Mr. Schuester looked at us thoughtfully. I can't blame the guy for having to think about it, there was definitely some stuff to weigh in there but in the end he said, "Alright. That's fine." He looked over to Mira and Lavi and gestured, saying, "Come on over."

He got up from his seat at his little judging desk thing, whatever it's called. As he approached, Davy and I sat ourselves down, feet hanging over the edge of the stage. Lavi took his place leaning against Davy's legs and Mira stood leaning against the wall near where my own legs fell.

"You're all talented," Mr. Schuester said to the three who could actually sing, and you could tell from the spark in his eye and the smile on his face that he wasn't just saying it because he was a teacher and we were the only kids he had for the club. "You're all in, of course. You four are also, so far, the only ones we have in the club. No matter what, I intend on having this club running, but there's a minimum of twelve kids for competition, and I have to look up the rules for you," Mr. Shuester gestured to me. "How much do you want to do this?"

"Very much!" Davy chirped.

"Lot's!" was Mira's response.

"Whatever Davy wants," Lavi sing-songed, eliciting an "aww!" from Mira and mock gagging from me. Davy leaned down to ruffle his boyfriend's hair and we all redirected our attention to the teacher.

"Well then I have to ask you guys to recruit some members. It'll be easier for you kids to make it sound cool than having a teacher try to tell kids it's a cool thing."

I thought to myself that no, it wasn't going to be any easier as we were a group of little freaks and there was no way in hell we were going to do any convincing but of course I wasn't going to say that to the well meaning teacher, and anyway, I didn't want to sign it as I preferred not to remind Davy, who would end up doing the interpreting, of the fact that we were the bottom of the social ladder and generally fucked by society.

My three friends all chimed in the affirmative to respond to Mr. Shuester, and I myself nodded.

Dana's POV

I always had to do stuff like that, right? I'm too indecisive, really, and it always ends up with me, last minute, still debating what to do with only like five seconds to choose. I had spent the entire day debating whether or not to show up at auditions for the Glee club. I mean, it sounded like a whole lot of fun. But the fact remained that well…I'm not really that great of a singer. Or dancer. There was one thing I felt comfortable performing and it had nothing to do with the arts.

Despite my raging insecurities I forced myself to open the auditorium door and run down to the front of the stage. There were four kids there already. A boy with a mess of curly blonde hair and glasses sat grinning on the stage beside a more neutral looking boy with smooth black hair that fell in his eyes and spiked in the back. On the ground there stood a boy with cherry red hair leaning against the blonde boy, and a girl with a more natural deep brown-red that turned coppery where the light hit it. I turned to the teacher, who I recognized as one of the Spanish teachers. I had a different one, so I didn't know his name.

"Um, I'm sorry," I spoke, trying not to stumble over my words. "I know I'm late and all but can I try out? I'm not so great but –"

The blonde one cut me off, cheering, "Alright! We only need to locate seven more singing children now!"

"Hopefully good ones, because we need more than three better than average kids, and she seems to think she's not so great. Oh my God that sounded horribly conceited didn't it," it was the girl speaking and she looked honestly distressed by what she had just said. She turned her gaze towards me, "I really mean no offense, promise."

I shrugged. "Whatever, you're right."

"Anyway Mira, I think you're forgetting just how super fabulous we are," the kid with dyed hair piped up.

The black haired boy nudged the blonde one and started doing hand movements which I figured out after a second were sign language. The blonde one started talking a moment after the other started signing, "You know guys, why don't we let her sing?" The blonde one paused for a moment before saying, "Yeah, Riley's right."

"You ready?" the teacher asked me, finally speaking.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

* * *

><p>Shortly after the performance that had nearly caused me to pass out from sheer terror, I had learned the kids' names and the predicament that our club was in. I had agreed to try and get some more members but really wasn't going to be much help. I am just so bad at talking to people who I don't know, and at school, I knew no one. Hell, I knew so few people that I missed most of the dramatic events that people talked about. I couldn't tell you one piece of gossip from our previous years of school, and that's saying something, because the girls in our school gossip a lot.<p>

I walked into school the next day, thoroughly ready for a day entirely lacking in social interaction, only to find Mira standing at my locker. "Hey," she greeted me.

"Hi. Um, how did you find my locker?"

"Deductive reasoning. When you introduced yourself you said you last name, and lockers are organized alphabetically," she shrugged. "Simple enough."

"Okay then. I'll hold off on deciding if that's creepy." I tried to open my locker. Tried, and failed.

She laughed. "Hey now. I just wanted to talk to you about getting new recruits."

I shrugged. "I'm hardly the best person to ask. I'm shit with people." Again, my combination failed. I punched the locker. Stupid thing. I entered my combination again.

"Do you know anyone who's into the arts?"

"Okay, look," I turned to her, crossing my arms over my chest, "Do you even remember me from the past three years of schooling?" She didn't respond. "I don't hang out with anyone, I don't know anyone. I'm no good with people. I haven't got any friends at this school, and I don't really care. But I am not the person to ask about this."

She stood silent as I pulled my books out of my finally opened locker, but she followed me down the hallway. After what felt like ages, she spoke up again.

"You're not bad, you know."

She had lost me. "Huh?"

"At singing, I mean. You're not bad," she said matter-of-factly. "You just don't know how to change songs to your natural key. It's not an uncommon problem."

"Oh." How else was I supposed to respond to that?

"I could help you with that. I mean, if you want me to."

"Yeah, sure," I found myself agreeing without actually _deciding_ to agree. It was weird, having someone actually offering up help to me. "I mean, definitely."

* * *

><p><span>Dylan's POV<span>

Figgens and I stared at each other over his desk. This was a game I was used to, and very good at playing.

"Mr. Ackerman, you cannot skateboard in the school hallways."

I shrugged. "I didn't hurt anyone, I don't see the problem."

"It's dangerous! This is your second day at school and already I've had to bring you into my office. The principle at the middle school warned me about you. I'm also aware that the school board made a deal with you. Have you looked at any of the arts clubs?"

I shrugged, scowling. That stupid deal. Somehow the school board had gotten full of those crazy people who think the arts can fix delinquents like me, and the only thing keeping me in the district school system was that deal. It wasn't that I hated the arts that much, it just did not fit my image, whatsoever. Totally uncool.

"Mr. Ackerman, I want you to join an arts club by the end of the day and bring me a note signed by the teacher, or I'm going to have to go to the board."

"Fine, fine," I waved it off, standing up. "I'll see you later, Figgens. I'm sure we're going to be awesome friends by the end of the year." I walked out the door and dropped my skateboard to the ground.

"And don't skate in the hallways!" Figgens shouted after me.

I ignored him, opting to wave at the sophomore girls who were watching me roll my way down the hallway.

* * *

><p>It was math class and we were in pairs to look over our summer work one last time before handing it in. I was basically copying answers over from my partner who didn't seem to care much. He wasn't complaining, just staring at me. "Dude, stop that," I said to him without looking up from the packet."<p>

"You sing to yourself, did you know that?"

I looked up at the blonde fucker who had a shit eating grin plastered across his face. "What?"

He laughed. "So you don't know. Well you do. You're not bad, either."

I rolled my eyes and refocused on finding x. Or copying the answer to what x was. "Aren't you dating that Lavi kid? The one with the obnoxious hair? Don't creep on me. What the fuck are those numbers? I can't read them."

"Just 'cause I like guys doesn't mean I'm creeping on you. And nine is a bitch, I never actually came to an answer."

I turned the page, saying, "I wasn't saying it 'cause you're gay –"

"Bi," he corrected.

"-_whatever_. I was saying it because you're _staring at me_. I like girls."

"So do I." I looked up to see him smiling like an idiot. "Do you like singing?"

"Is this a speed date?" I questioned.

"Dude, you're cool and all but I'm just not into you."

"Good, the feeling's mutual, then."

"What do you like to sing?" He brought us back to that subject again.

"If I answer your questions, will you drop it?"

"Yep!" he said with a bright smile like a toddler's.

"Alright. Yes, I like singing. I thought I had stopped doing it without thinking, but apparently not. I like varied music, it's easier to say that I don't like rap or country, but both of those have quite a few exceptions."

"You should join Glee."

I snorted. "That's not gay."

"I know that was a joke at me so I feel the need to restate: I'm not gay, I'm bi."

"I don't really care."

"Well, you like singing. Glee is singing. Therefore, you'll like Glee. It's like chorus, but cooler."

"It's like chorus, but more gay."

But suddenly I remember my trip to the office that morning, and the deal that I had made. I was going to have to join an arts club and here was this kid, dangling a club membership right in front of my face.

I looked up at him. He was now pouting and looked like he was deciding what to say next. Just as he opened his mouth I spoke. "When does Glee meet?"

He smiled. "After school for a couple hours. But the thing is…"

* * *

><p>Davy now had me on the mission of finding new recruits for the shit storm that was going to be Glee club, since I knew a lot of the kids in our grade, and they liked me a hell of a lot more than they liked him, his gay lover, copper-head, and the mute kid.<p>

Yes, I know their names. No I don't have to use them.

I didn't exactly want to prance around asking people to join something as obviously socially murderous as Glee club. I was convinced that my reputation would survive but I still would prefer that people didn't know I was in the damn club, even if they would find out eventually.

But there was at least one girl who I knew would be totally into it.

"Maria," I slid into the seat next to her at the lunch table where she sat alone. "Where's Roy?"

She looked at me through the empty frames of her stupid oversized hipster glasses. "Sick. What do you want, Dylan?"

"Why so mean to me, Maria? Can't we have a pleasant conversation," I asked, trying to force my face into a concerned expression.

She rolled her eyes and adjusted her head band, chunky bracelets clunking around loudly. "You and I don't interact at school and I'm not complaining, I get it. Hell I don't want people to know I actually tolerate you, thousands of girls would murder me. I'm just confused as to why that's suddenly changed."

I waved it off. "Eh, whatever, one conversation won't hurt. I've got an idea you might like and after this…well my rep might be shot to hell anyway. Hopefully not but…yeah."

"Hm." She leaned closer to me, resting her chin on her hands and looking at me thoughtfully. "And what exactly is this plan, Dylan. Does it have to do with you being a closeted theater nerd?"

I felt my cheek tick. "Don't say it out loud in public. But yeah, it does, and it has to do with the fact that the _only_ thing you listen to other than extremely obscure underground bands is…you guessed it, musical theater! Glee club is show choir, and you should join. I mean, Broadway isn't all they do, but it's a lot of it."

Maria cocked her head to the side. "You're telling me about this. Oh my God, you're in it aren't you!"

"Shut up," I grumbled, leaning back in my chair and crossing my arms.

She started laughing, just cackling at me. "Oh that's great! The super cool Dylan Ackerman, in Glee! Hilarious!"

"Stop shouting it!" I snapped. "Are you going to join? They started off with only five kids. With you and me, that's only one more than half the required amount. And I don't even know if one of those kids actually even counts."

At this, Maria smiled. "Aw, you need me, that's cute. Tell you what, Ackerman; you annoy me, and while I would hate to spend more time with you than I already do," I rolled my eyes, "I'll join. It sounds cool. Roy will probably love it too."

"Ugh, that kid."

She smacked my arm. "He's my friend. And you need him."

* * *

><p><span>Maria's POV<span>

"So yeah, he'll probably join," I finished telling Davy, who Dylan had brought me to at the end of the period. I had been discussing things with Davy while Dylan rolled up and down the hallways.

"Alright, that's good. That brings us to eight members. Only four to go. Who else could we get?" he asked me.

"No clue. I don't even know why the hell I joined," Dylan said as he cruised past us, going faster now that the hallways were near empty, the bell having just rung for the start of next period.

"We're gonna be late to classes on the second day of school," Davy stated, still shuffling some stuff in his locker. I don't know what effect he expected that statement to have. Dylan and I both simply shrugged at him. He sighed and shut the locker. He opened his mouth but before he could say anything else we were interrupted by the sound of loud laughter from a group of girls and a chorus of, "Loser!"

We all shared a look, before beginning to walk off (well, Dylan skated off) to the sound. We all stopped where the hallway met with another one, and I peeked around the corner. I saw a thin boy with short black hair glaring at no one in particular and picking some papers off the ground.

Now I was ready to completely ignore the kids because yeah, whatever, kids are dicks and it sucks but everyone can just deal, but then the kid opened his mouth and started singing, of all things.

_"Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me_

_ I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed._

_ She was looking kinda dumb with her finger and her thumb_

_ And the shape of an 'L' on her forehead."_

He probably thought he was alone in the hallway. And it really wasn't that weird, he wasn't like suddenly bursting into song like it was a musical or some shit, he was just singing quietly to himself. He probably thought the song was funny, considering his situation.

I looked over my shoulder to Davy and Dylan. I held a finger to my lips and waved to them to come creep on the boy with me.

He had continued to sing and had hit the part:

_"So much to do so much to see_

_ So what's wrong with taking the back streets?_

_ You'll never know if you don't go_

_ You'll never shine if you don't glow."_

Now, the boy was singing quietly so I didn't get the full effect of his vocal style, but I could tell it was pretty rock, more rock than I would have expected to come out of a kid like that, and damn he was pretty good. He looked like he was ready to stop, closing his locker and turning to head down the hallway, but Dylan, being the spontaneous thing he is, skated out from behind the corner singing.

_ "Hey now, you're an all star, get you game on, go play."_

The kid gave him a funny look because I mean _really_ this was fucking weird. Hesitantly he sang out:

_"Hey now, you're a rock star, get the show on, get paid."_

Together the two of them sang:

_"And all that glitters is gold_

_ Only shooting stars break the mold."_

They fell silent before the kid looked pointedly down at Dylan's skateboard and said, "You're not supposed to skateboard in the hallways."

"And you're late to class. Whatever. Awesome voice, wanna join a club full of talented kids like us?" Dylan gave the kid his signature smirk, the one that made me want to punch someone in the face.

"You're Dylan Ackerman," he stated, disbelief clear on his face, "and you're inviting _me_ to a club? _Glee_ club?"

"Dude, you know me? Awesome, I'm famous."

"Yeah, you put glue on my seat on the first day of sixth grade," he said, clearly still a bit irritated by said incident.

"Oh," Dylan shuffled his feet, looking uncomfortable, "sorry dude."

* * *

><p><span>Sunny's POV<span>

I was standing in the choir room with my arm hooked through the arm of one of my best friends, Jake Marin. I smiled brightly at the kids who were already in their seats. I could feel my ponytail bobbing back and forth as I bounced up and down on my toes and addressed the room, "So I was like sick yesterday, with that icky cold that's been going around, but I totally wanna join, is that cool? Jake wants to join too!" I turned my bright smile on Jake.

His eyes flicked to mine, then to the group. He sighed and shrugged before telling them, "I can rap and play drums. So yeah."

"Aaaand he can sing, but he doesn't like to admit it!" I added for him.

Kiki, who was standing on the other side of Jake jerked a thumb in his direction and said, "I didn't find out about this until Jake mentioned it, but I would like to join if it's not too late. And if it doesn't get in the way of the Photography club." She started fiddling with the camera that hung around her neck.

"I'm sure it will be finding, and I'll try to work something out with your club supervisor if there's a problem," Mr. Shuester said. "And I see Dylan came and brought some friends."

"He didn't _bring_ me," said a boy who I recognized as one of the kids who was _known_ to be smart in our class. I struggled to bring his name to mind, and failed.

"He just suggested it to me," some hipster girl said, "and I suggested it to Ally."

A _totally_ emo girl scrunched up her nose and said, "Oh God, I don't wanna join if you're all like her." Her look to me was just overflowing with disdain and I'm sure I would have died on the spot if she could kill with a look.

"Play nice," the hipster chided.

"Oh please she's exactly the type of girl we hate."

"Still here, you know," I piped, still cheerful.

"I'm not nearly so cheerful," a girl with long dirty blonde hair spoke from a corner of the room. Her name…I didn't know her name either. I was going to have to work on that. "Does that help?"

"Alright, settle down. Ally," Mr. Shuester looked to the girl, "try not to insult other club members. I'm sure you'll get along fine. You'd be surprised how different people can get along when they've got music on their side.

"So! New members, I believe it's time you share some music with us!"

* * *

><p><span>Davy's POV<span>

I heard the skateboard coming and turned to see Dylan rolling up. Lavi and I let go of each other's hands as Dylan stepped off the board and grabbed it, walking between the two of us and talking, "So we've got everyone we need. We're one up which is good since I don't know if you're friend actually counts. Shue isn't even clear on the rules for that."

"One up, like an extra life in case we lose Riley," Lavi grinned at me, knowing I would appreciate the Mario mushroom joke. Dylan appreciated it too, apparently, and laughed, and I opened my mouth to make a joke of my own, but I never got the opportunity.

It hit quick and shocked my system. None of us even had a chance to see it coming before it actually happened. We didn't even catch sight of who had done it. And by the time it had happened, the sticky red ice was in our eyes and stinging, and made it impossible to see the assholes who decided to through slushies on us and scoff, "Fags." They were gone before any of us could recover.

"Well, I guess we're not staying on the DL huh," Lavi said with a tone of acceptance as he wiped the red slush from his eyes.

"This is gonna be shit." Dylan kicked the nearest locker and made a threatening lurch to the kids who were looking at him oddly.

"You're right. But I bet it's going to be awesome too," I said, forcing a grin.

"Ever the optimist, aren't you," Lavi approached me with the dry part of his scarf, and began to use it to wipe the sugary ice from my eyes.

A purple haired girl approached us, tissues in hand. "Oh honey, don't you ruin the nice scarf more than it already has been," she said to Lavi. "You guys are in the Glee club, right? Is there room for new members?"

And with her, we were two ahead of minimum. It was going to be great, whatever the slushy facial said to the opposite point. I could just feel it, and it felt nothing like the cold slush dripping down my face.

* * *

><p><em>Thank you for reading and I hope that you'll drop me a review! Tell me what you think! I would also like to note that there have been people asking if I am in need of new characters. If you would like to submit a character, I am open to an application. Tell me what they're like, and I'll ask questions if I need to! Don't be shy, just know that the use of your character depends on how they fit with my plans and the characters I already have! I would also like to say that Mira has been bother from mirandamaddnessMira Hinder, and you should go check her out. Much love from me to you!_


	2. High School Sucks

_AN: If you missed it, I've been rewriting this. If you want, you can go back and read Chapter One edited, or you can just wait until I get to wherever you left off. It's pretty much the same story._

_ I own no music! Or Glee!_

_ Also the wonderful pyrofrickenmaniac wrote my gleecap and you should totally check her out!_

_ On with the show!_

#

Losers Like Us

Chapter Two

High School Sucks

_Man, it's high school_

_And it sucks._

**-TimothyDeLaGhetto and Company-**

_So here's what you missed on Glee:  
>Will doesn't have any kids in his club anymore ever since everyone graduated so he's going to go for the freshman. Davy, Mira, and Lavi join along with Riley, who's mute, but wants to support his friends. Davy pines for this guy Dylan to join, but Dylan thinks Glee's gay, like Davy. But Davy isn't gay, he's actually bisexual. "I like girls." "So do I." Davy finds a few more members and things are finally looking good for Glee... until they get slushied. Bummer, right?<em>

_And that's what you missed on GLEE._

#

"You can't be serious!"

In the terms that his students would use, this _really sucked_. William Shuester was standing in Figgens' office beside one Sue Sylvester, and somehow, _somehow_, she was ruining him all over again.

"I'm very serious, Shuester, as serious as your hair gel addiction. Glee club takes far too much from the school and _my_ budget."

Will gritted his teeth together, trying not to turn _very_ uncivilized. "I've already proven the Glee club is worth it for the school. Did all that mean nothing?"

"Face it Shuester, all of your precious talent is gone. There's no way your Glee club can survive. Pure luck, pure _luck_ that your kids finally managed to pull it off last year, because Shuester, I don't believe you can make talent like I make with my Cheerios."

Giving up on Sue (and really, he should know by now not to even start on her) Will turned to Figgens. "You can't honestly be listening to this."

Figgens let out a heavy sigh and Will's stomach dropped. He knew that was not a good sign. "While I do believe that Sue has a vendetta against your club," Figgens gave her a stern look, which didn't affect her at all, "I must admit that this would be a gamble with all new kids. You rely on _natural_ talent, Shue, and who knows if they have it."

"They do, I'm sure of it," Will said firmly.

Figgens shook his head and said, "Shue, I can't just risk it. I don't want to disband you club, just prove there's a reason to keep around. That's reasonable, isn't it?"

#

Dylan's POV

"What the hell!" My outburst startled Jake who sat next to me, and I realized I might be freaking out a little too much, especially for being _me_ who would be unlikely to join the damn club anyway. It was probably weird from an outsider's point of view. But dammit, I needed that club, or I'd have to go to a reform school or some shit like that. This was my last chance to fix that crap, I'd made a promise to deal with this, and Glee was probably my only chance to enjoy it at all.

Mr. Shue had come into the choir room, where we had all been waiting for Glee to start. I had been discussing songs with Jake, who I was sitting next to beside the drum set, along with Davy, who had a guitar in hand, while I myself held a bass. We hadn't moved from out spots when Mr. Shue came in and dropped the news on us. Around me, there was a general rise of anger from the others. "I got a slushie facial for this crap and it hasn't even started!" I exclaimed in a tone of outraged disbelief. "He can't take this away, I need this."

"Hold up, someone threw slushies at you?" Mr. Shue questioned. I couldn't read the look on his face.

"Yeah, me and Lavi too," Davy provided, crossing his arms over his chest.

Mr. Shuester started rubbing his temples, clearly trying to keep calm. "Already?" I heard him grumble. Damn, I was going to be really freaking mad if he had known that was coming. He brought his head up and clasped his hands together. "Don't worry guys," he tried to be encouraging, but it was easy enough to tell he was worried, "this is temporary. We'll put something together and show them the Glee club is awesome," he grinned, and not one of us reacted to it, "and we'll show Figgens that you guys deserve a chance. And I know the perfect song!" He mentioned some old song that I don't really care enough to remember. It was an embarrassingly bad choice, I can tell you that much.

We all chose to stare at him silently. I think that half of us, myself including, thought he was making a joke, like trying to bring the mood up or something because…

"You _can't_ be serious, right?" Dana voiced my opinion, breaking the silence. She was looking at Mr. Schue like he had suddenly decided to turn into a pink and purple giraffe, and succeeded.

"Why wouldn't I be?" That's the saddest part, in my opinion. He actually seemed to be confused by our reaction. This dude seriously needed to get with the times.

"That will _so_ not help us at all. It'll probably just make it worse, seriously," Maria was the one that spoke this time, and her comment was received with many head nods and noises of agreement.

"How in the world is that supposed to be cool?" That was Black Girl, whose name I didn't remember. It was something like Mimi or Riri…is Riri even a name? Ugh, I really hate those types of names.

"Kiki's right, Mr. Shuester," Nate said. Kiki, that was it. "We've got to do something they'll think is cool, something fun to listen to, with good lyrics. Something…relatable, too."

That was getting specific, but it pretty much sounded exactly like what might help us. _Might._

Mr. Shue raised his eyebrows. "You have something in mind?"

"Definitely," Nate said, with a nervous smile that really just looked kind of painful. He stood and came to the front of the room, pulling on his hoodie strings in what I would assume was a nervous habit. "It might sound a little odd without music."

He then began to sing:

_"I almost got drunk at school at fourteen,"_

I knew the song, it was actually one of my favorites, and I immediately started up on the base line because he was right, it would sound sorta awkward without music.

_"Where I almost made out with the homecoming queen,_

_ Who almost went on to be Miss Texas,"_

Nate's posture had loosened from the tense straight standing posture it had been before, and he smiled a little at the next line,

_"But lost to a slut with much bigger breastes,"_

At that Nate cupped his non-existent boobs, getting laughter from the rest of the room. It was probably the first time any of us had seen the kid be funny in our lives. He was one of those kids that you'd seen before and knew as the upright try-hard, and it was weird to see him joking around, I think for all of us.

_"I almost dropped out to move to LA_

_ Where I was almost famous for almost a day,"_

Jake chose that moment to jump in on the drum part.

_"And I almost had you,_

_ But I guess that doesn't cut it_

_ Almost loved you_

_ I almost wish you would have loved me too."_

Davy grinned and played the guitar part while Nate bobbed his head up and down, really getting into his rhythm. It was cool, really cool, that we were just kinda jamming and I know definitely guessing some on the instruments and making it sound _good_. Nate gestured to a couple of the girls to come up and Maria and Kiki obliged, dancing around as Nate continued.

_"I almost held up a grocery store_

_ Where I almost did five years and then seven more_

_ 'Cause I almost got popped for a fight with a thug,"_

Nate and Lavi threw a few fake punches as Nate sang. Lavi proceeded to do the Running Man with the most obnoxious look on his face as Nate sang the next part.

_"That I almost got hooked on 'cause you ran away_

_ And I wish I could have had the nerve to ask you to stay,"_

Nate continued on with the chorus and the rest of the song, and by the end everyone was singing or playing or dancing along, even loner-girl Dana and the depressed one, Ally, who were dancing around in their own chairs. As Nate held the final note out, those of us playing the instruments trailed off. Laughing together we all looked to Mr. Shue.

Mr. Shue clapped with a smile on his face. "Alright, I see what you mean…but," every one of our faces fell and there were a few groans, one of them coming from me, "that's not quite appropriate for a school function.

Roy, who was leaning against the piano, piped up, suggesting, "What about 'All for One'?"

We all stared at him and I found myself wondering if that was going to be the group reaction to terrible suggestions. And just how many times suggestions were going to be bad enough to get that reaction.

"…What!" He shrunk away, his tone defensive.

"Like, the High School Musical song? Are you eight?" Dana's facial expression as she asked was completely incredulous.

"Hon," Maria placed a hand on Roy's shoulder, "why don't you run suggestions by me next time?"

I snickered along with Jacob and Kiki, who shared a glance before full on cracking up, which set me off, along with Jake and Davy. Though to Davy's credit, he seemed to be the only one who looked like he felt a little guilty about us being dicks, and was trying to contain himself. Roy looked confused, before deciding to be annoyed and crossing his arms with a huff.

"You know," Ally said from her seat, "I actually have a decent suggestion if anyone cares to hear it."

#

Nathan's POV

I had thought I was going to die, honestly. The only time I was ever able to stand in front of a group like that was for projects and reports because those I _knew_ I was good at, had worked on for hours, could completely own. Going up in front of the group spontaneously like that was completely not me and I'm surprised I didn't have a heart attack the moment I had realized what I was doing.

The fact that I hadn't passed out was an accomplishment on its own, and it had gone farther than that, they had _enjoyed _it, had _fun_ with it. It had been, simply put, awesome. In that moment I realized with a shock that I had almost forgotten how fun it was to just let go and have, well, _fun_.

I was still sure I would be just as terrified the next time. I was already about to have a panic attack from the realization of how much I'd forgotten about enjoying myself. But overall, it was a good thing.

Ally's suggestion was actually pretty great, and upon my surprise that it wasn't something loud and screaming or extremely depressing I immediately felt bad for assuming it _would_ be something like that. But what can I say, that's the air she puts off. Everyone else had appeared as surprised as me, with the exception of Maria, who I think knew Ally to some extent, and so probably already knew her musical tastes. We spent the rest of the week practicing her number. Monday was the day of the mandatory assembly and halfway through I was beginning to feel like I was going to be sick.

The day started getting terrible even before the assembly. Okay, terrible may be exaggeration, but it definitely wasn't good. I was just making my way down the hallway, minding my own business like a good little nerd, and some stupid jock butt hole from the football team came bowling out of nowhere and shoves me into a locker. My body slammed against it, sending a shot of pain straight through my shoulder.

"Oops, sorry, guess I didn't see you there," he said, smirking at me.

"Don't worry about it, I can't fault beings of lesser intelligence for the things they do," I responded, quite stupidly might I add, because even that dumbbell would know it was an insult and be prepared to murder me.

He sneered at me, and I recognized him as Luke, one of the lead jerkwads at school. From what I heard he was on the freshman football team. All I could think to try and feel a little better about the situation was that at least it wasn't one of the older kids noticing me. Yet. "Shut up, nerd." He shoved me back.

My automatic reflexes resulted in me pushing against him. Which was really really stupid. Luke looked just about ready to punch me, hard, of course aiming for the gut so there was no obviously visible evidence of anything, not in plain sight, but before he had touched me someone stepped between us, and he stopped.

It was one of the Glee club boys. And not just any of them, the mute one. I couldn't quite figure out why Riley would join a singing club when he couldn't even speak but…I digress.

In that particular moment, Riley was standing between me and Luke with his arms folded, glaring at the obnoxious kid, and I didn't really care about any of the logistics of him being in the Glee club.

"Oh this is just great, one freak defending another," Luke spoke. Riley continued to simply glare at the boy. I don't suppose he could have done much else, really. "Get out of here, baseball boy, it ain't your season."

Riley rolled his eyes, expressing the same thing I was feeling. It was ridiculous, the rivalry between the baseball players and the football players. All of them, from the juniors in the high school to at least the seventh graders in the middle school just hated each other, and I'm pretty sure half of them never even knew why the whole thing started. All I knew was that Johnny from the baseball team and Tommy from football got into some hug fight back when they were in the eighth grade that got blown way out of hand, and it had gotten the whole thing started. The rivalry had gone on even after they went onto the high school, and apparently, they had brought it there with them, unless Luke was just holding his own grudges. My class had been in the sixth grade when this all had started, and they'd kept it going with the middle schoolers. The grade below us was probably teaching the sixth graders the same stuff.

"Tell me, where are your pet freaks, those two fa-"

Now at the time I didn't know Riley or his friends enough to know what Luke was going on about, though later I would be able to venture a guess. What he had said managed to piss Riley off enough that he made a threatening lunge towards the boy, stopping just short of actually hitting him.

Luke grinned, malice in his eyes. "Oh that gets us fired up, huh?"

The bell rang then, which is good, because otherwise I think the two of them might have gotten into a full out brawl. With one last glare between Luke and Riley, Luke marched off. I spoke up after a few moments of silence.

"Thanks," my voice came out all weird and awkward and I cursed myself for the level of suck I had with human interaction.

Riley shrugged in response.

We stood there awkwardly for a minute before word vomit forced its way out my mouth. "This would be a lot less awkward if you could talk back." Yes Nathan, let's go pointing out people's disabilities and how they inconvenience you, that's definitely socially appropriate.

Riley shrugged again but this time, to my surprise, he smiled slightly. My mind interpreted it as a sort of, "Whatever," like it didn't bother him or matter to him or something. But since I'm not so hot at reading people and situations, I didn't really trust my interpretation. Riley clapped me on the shoulder than walked off, presumably towards his next class.

I stood there for a minute, processing. Random kid defending me. That was new.

#

I had been feeling pretty good, actually, after the experience with Luke and Riley because it just felt nice to have someone defend me for once. No shame here, I'll admit that. But when it was time for the assembly, I was ready to pass out. I mean it, I was getting light headed and dizzy. I had about five minutes and I had gone to my locker to drop off some of my stuff and then stand there for about three minutes trying to calm myself down before I ran to the gymnasium to arrive just in time.

Yes, I planned my freak out. Might as well, it was inevitable. I was surprised, simply shocked out of the impending freak out, when I opened my locker and a whole crap ton of boxes of Nerd fell out. As in, the candy.

I heard a snicker. I turned to the sound and was faced with Luke, looking like he was some sort of ingenious prankster or some shit. "Nerd," he said through laughter.

"Luke, you just gave me a whole lot of candy." I raised my eyebrows at him. "How was that supposed to be insulting?"

"Uh…" his eyebrows were furrowed and his face was slowly getting redder. He had a confused anger about him and no words were coming out of his mouth.

I sighed. "Just go to the assembly and heckle us or something."

Dana's POV

So teenage girls are probably the most terrible things to ever exist. Other than maybe Nazis. Normally I wouldn't let them get to me because I know the majority of them are idiots. None of them said anything directly to me because I just kinda fly under the radar that searches for loser kids to make fun of, but I could still hear them talking about it. And it made me more than a little bit nervous for our performance. It was affecting all of us. You could feel the tension in the hall outside the gym, where we stood in our tie-dye shirts and jeans.

Oh yeah. What a cool outfit.

"Where is Nathan?" Dylan repeated for the tenth time in the past five minutes.

"Ackerman, if you ask that one more time I will kill you," Jake said harshly, glaring at the skater who flipped him off and then _very _discreetly stepped behind Davy.

Davy rolled his eyes and said, "Seriously though, where the hell is he, we're supposed to go up in like two minutes, I'm gonna be annoyed if he bailed."

"I wouldn't blame him if he did," I mumbled, quietly enough that I think the only one who heard me was Mira, who stood right beside me.

Dylan, from his spot hiding behind Davy, looked directly at Jake and repeated the question, "Where's Nathan?" From the look that came over Jake's face, I honestly think he would have really murdered Dylan.

That is, if it weren't for the fact that the answer came as Nathan approached out group with an armful of…Nerds? "Here I am!"

Davy stepped to the side and gave Dylan a shove out in front, towards Jake who was still glaring. "Nate, we thought you weren't showing up!" He vocalized the collective thought.

"Don't shorten my name," Nathan told him. "Anyway, I'm sorry, I got held up a bit. Nerds, anyone?" He proceeded to explain to us how he acquired said Nerds while handing them out.

When he finished Roy held up his box of Nerds and said, "Cheers," with a nervous little half smile, and tilted his head back, pouring the Nerds into his mouth. We all followed suit, with tense laughter and smiles just as nervous as Roy's had been.

"Alright, showtime. You guys ready?" Mr. Shue walked up to the group and questioned.

We all tried to respond through the mouthfuls of Nerds.

He laughed. "Alright, finish that up, then get out there."

We each swallowed and shuffled through the door and to our spots in the gym, as hundreds of pairs of eyes looked down on us, ready to judge. I really liked Ally's suggestion, it was one of my favorite songs to rock out to, but putting on this show was nerve-wracking. Every kid in the audience was staring at us and I could _feel _them thinking how stupid this was. Oh well, too late, I was the one who had decided to join the stupid club.

High school freaking sucks, why was I making it more stressful?

But the music was starting and it was time to lose myself to it.

We had chosen Dylan to sing since he was probably the "coolest" among us all, or at least the most well liked across the groups. The song was probably best for him to. The rest of us were back up and dancing.

On the beat we all struck an immature (but school appropriate obviously) pose as Dylan sang,

_"This is who I am and this is what I like,"_

With the next beat we switched poses and God did I feel stupid, we probably all looked ridiculous,

_"GC, Sum and Blink and MXPX rockin' my room,"_

We all then went into the synchronized motions that I think looked pretty cool when we all did it together. The choreography was pretty cool, and actually decent because of the combined forces of our resident cheerleader Sunny and Luka's years of dance.

_"If you're looking for me I'll be at the show,_

_ I can never find a better place to go_

_ Until the day I die_

_ I promise I won't change_

_ So you better give up,"_

The choreography was actually good for me, personally, because it felt a lot like just letting go and rocking out in your room…it was just a more systematic planned way of rocking out. If that makes any sense.

_"I don't wanna be told to grow up,_

_ And I don't want to change, I just wanna have fun,_

_ I don't wanna be told to grow up,_

_ And I don't wanna change, so you better give up_

_ 'Cause I'm not gonna change,_

_ I don't wanna grow up!"_

I had no idea what the reaction was, at this point, I was just losing myself in the dance, looking around at the others dancing around me, singing and smiling and just looking pretty damn awesome, and it didn't really matter. We'd been working on it and here we were _performing_ showing off our work and what we had made together and who gave a fuck what they thought.

That would only last until the song ended but, it was great while it lasted.

Ally and Dylan sang the second verse back and forth and we finished off strong. Everyone clapped for us and not one single person was yelling an insult…at least I couldn't here it. I could feel the grin on my face, matching those around me as everyone linked arms or threw them over each other's shoulders, laughing and smiling and joking as we stepped out of the gym.

Then my face met cold sugary ice.

The reactions differed, though most were some variation of _pissed off_. Except Sunny, who just looked shocked. Poor innocent popular cheerleader. She had no idea what was going on.

#

"The good news is that Figgens said we can continue Glee Club."

We were all sitting in the Choir room. We were all sitting around, a little damp from washing the slushies off in the shower room. We were convened back in the Choir room for the news, and no one really looked particularly happy, even after we were told the news. Still, no one had quit, and that was something. I think after tasting what we had during that performance, the ending couldn't ruin it. At least for me, it didn't make me forget that for those moments, I was surrounded by people who knew my name and had asked for my input and had given me a part in the team.

I'll bet you anything that every single one of us had thought about quitting, but no one had and that in and of its self was a bit of a boost. I guess it hadn't escalated enough yet.

"Also, the boys who did it were caught and got detention."

Now _that _elicited a cheer from everyone.

"Alright, got your energy back!" Mr. Shue said with a grin. "Let's get down to this! We'll win Sectionals, right guy? Shove it in their faces."

Another general cheer rang through the room.

#

_ Thanks for reading the new and improved Losers Like Us! I hope you'll drop me a review and tell me what you think! _

_ None of the songs belong to me. Google the lyrics if you wanna know the name and artist._


	3. Memories

_AN: Again, if you missed the information, I am rewriting this! So welcome to chapter three of the new and improved Losers Like Us!_

_I own no music or recognizable Glee characters. The Gleecap is by the fabulous pyrofrickenmaniac and Mira is Mirandamaddness/Mira Hinder's. Everyone else is mine. On with the show!_

#

Losers Like Us

Chapter Three

Memories

_How I miss yesterday_

_How I let it fade away_

**-Panic at the Disco-**

_So here's what you missed on Glee:  
>Figgins thinks that the old group of New Directions graduated along with their talent and that Mr. Schue should just give up now, since this group of kids is even more mismatched than the previous members. Yah, it's that bad. Luke is a football player who started bullying Nathan, when Riley cut in and stopped it. Shortly. Luke tried to make fun of Nate again by putting a ton of Nerds in his locker. "Nerd!" But that kinda backfired because really, he just gave Nate a crap ton of candy. Yum! Mr. Shue's choice of music still sucks, but the kids put together a performance that made Figgins lay off the Glee club. For now, but we all know how that usually goes.<em>

_And that's what you missed on GLEE._

#

Lavi's POV

It was Thursday and Davy, Dylan, and I were on our way to check out a coffee shop that I'd heard about. Except what was really happening was Davy and I claiming Dylan as our straight guy, because we needed one straight friend to hang out with occasionally and Riley was just never going to work for that position.

"Remind me why I'm hanging out with you two," Dylan bitched, while Davy held the door open for us. "People already think I'm gay."

I shrugged and Davy laughed, answering, "Because we're awesome."

"No you're not dude, don't lie."

Davy and I shot each other a look before bursting into hysterics. "Oh my God, Dylan," I managed through my laughter, "if that was a reference to the song, you're no longer going to have an _option_ of being our friend."

Dylan rolled his eyes. "Don't pretend like you're giving me an option in the first place. And yeah, it was a reference to the song."

"Well, you're right there," Davy responded, as the three of us shuffled forward in line, "it's not an option. But anyway, you're in glee club, Dylan, people are going to think you're gay no matter what."

"So does it really matter?" I asked, and somewhere I was a little concerned that the answer was going to be yes. I was used to it, the fact that even if someone didn't have a problem with me, they might have a problem with the other people thinking certain things, but I was going to be so disappointed if that mattered to Dylan. I was already quite fond of him.

Dylan groaned. "Dude, it doesn't matter, like seriously, fuck everyone. But it's still annoying that it's gonna happen." He moved ahead of Davy and me in line, peering up at the menu hanging overhead. Davy slipped his hand into mine and smiled confidently, probably just as pleased as I was with the response we'd gotten from Dylan. The warm pressure of Davy's hand against my own still made me smile like it had back when we first started dating.

"I've been meaning to come here for ages," I mused, "I heard the coffee's great."

"I don't like it," Dylan-Downer grumbled. "It seems like just the type of place where dirty hipster girls with stupid headbands – aka Maria – would come because 'Dunkin Donuts is too mainstream.'"

"Dunkin' Donuts also has shit coffee." We had reached the front of the line, and it had been the barista with a bright green headband who had spoken.

"Oh my God," Dylan said, "I don't know if I should be amused or terrified."

"Terrified," Maria said with a grin. "So, what's the order?"

"You know Maria, it is kind of hilarious that you work here, considering. It is _pretty _hipster," I pointed out, "as much as I loathe siding with Dylan." Said boy punched me in the arm and I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Hands off my man," Davy said, reaching across me and smacking Dylan upside the head.

"As entertaining as you boys are, I have to ask you to order, pleaase. You're holding up the line." Dylan and Davy both ignored Maria, continuing to smack each other.

I pushed in front of the boys to stand at the counter and asked, "Do you have any sort of vanilla coffee thing?"

"Yep."

"Alright. I'll have that, and a café mocha for my boo," I grinned. "Both medium."

Davy directed his attention from the mini-fight long enough to say, "Aw, you know my coffee order."

"You two are nauseating," Dylan said. Davy retaliated by taking his hat. As Dylan attempted to wrestle it out of my boyfriend's hands he said, "I want caramel iced coffee." Maria went to making our coffees.

"We can't help it," Davy told him, managing to duck past Dylan. He approached me, put his hands on my shoulder, and turned me so I was between him and Dylan. I sighed. "Maybe if we got you a girl you'd understand. Lavi, we need to get Dylan a girl."

"I'm up for matchmaking."

"No thank you, but I can get girls on my own."

"Yes," Maria came into the conversation, handing me and Davy our finished coffees. Davy put Dylan's hat on his own head to free up his hands and grab the coffee. "But maybe the classy boys can actually get you a decent girl instead of the skanks you touch. Like, a date-worthy girl."

"I'm not into dating anyone, Maria, so I'm not going for any of the girls these two get me. No doubt they'll be as clingy and emotional as the boys themselves," Dylan took the coffee that Maria handed him.

"You're ridiculous," Maria said, rolling her eyes. Dylan was right, though. If Davy and I went matchmaking, it wasn't to look for another fling for our infamous 'ladies man.' I'd heard plenty of stories about Dylan and his girls, and none of them were anything I was going to be setting up.

Just after Maria had spoken, a girl walked out from a door behind the counter, carrying a cardboard box. She bent down and placed it behind the counter, saying to Maria, "You're supposed to be nice to the costumers." She straightened up, caught sight of who we were, and amended, "That still applies to Dylan."

"Hey Kiki," I said brightly to the dark-skinned girl.

"Hi," she said, looking uncomfortable for some reason.

"You know, aren't you guys young to be working?" Dylan questioned, scowling.

"I'd lecture you on labor laws but instead, I'll tell you my sister owns the shop and we're helping out, and now you need to sit down so the line can move on," Kiki said this all rather fast, looking a tad bit flustered. I immediately felt guilty about the people who we were holding up, the number of whom was growing. The three of us went off to find a table.

Dylan's POV

The moment we sat down both of the others leaned in and stared at me intensely. I leaned back in my chair, a little freaked out by this. Ok, a lot freaked out. "What?"

"Sooo," Lavi said, trailing the o out for too long before finally finishing, "are you into Maria?"

The pair looked at me expectantly. "Um…" Where the hell had that come from? "No. She's fine to hang out with sometimes, but no. Her personality is too aggressive for me; it would be like dating a dude. Um, no offense?" I wasn't sure if I should actually apologize for that, so I tacked on the last part to be safe. I liked the pair of them, but I wasn't really sure on what was ok to say or not.

Simultaneously they responded, "None taken." They both seemed somewhat disappointed by my response to their question.

"Why do you guys even want to hang out with me?" I took a sip of my coffee. It was weird to me; they didn't seem like the type who would normally care much for me.

Davy, with a shrug, said, "You're pretty cool."

Lavi added, "You're not an asshat."

"That's all?"

"Do we need another reason?" Now that was weird. When they spoke one or two words together it wasn't so bad, but a whole phrase like that and the twin expressions on their faces…that was just creepy.

So when I said, "I guess not," in response to their question, I also added, "You guys are slightly creepy, what with the talking in unison and referring to yourself as 'we'."

They both wiped their faces blank and spoke in monotone, "We are one."

"Strike that. You're really, really creepy. Give me my hat back, alien," I reached across the table and pulled my hat off Davy's head.

They both just laughed.

#

It was later and I was sitting in my room, blasting a Good Charlotte CD on my stereo and just chilling out when my phone buzzed. The screen told me, '1 New Message from Dirty Hipster.' Yes, she was fully aware of what I had her programmed in my phone as.

The message read, 'Can you not mention the coffee shop to anyone?'

That seemed odd. Hence me proceeding to text back, 'That's weird. Sure, if you give me a reason.'

A song later and I received the next text. 'Don't say anything about it, but Kiki lives with her sis who owns the shop, 'cause her parents had to move for work and money trouble blah blah.'

'And?' I hit send.

A few moments later I got back, 'Look, I know it's not really that bad, but she's weird about it, and she thinks questions about the shop will lead to that.'

'Paranoid?'

'A little. But still. The only reason I know is because I go out of my way to find shops no one in town will go to. Which you and your gays had to ruin.'

'They're not MY gays. But whatever, I'll tell the clone couple. So you admit you're a hipster?'

'Never denied it hun. Clone couple?'

I rolled my eyes at the 'hun' in the text. I could practically hear her over-sweet tone as she said it. 'You really don't want to know.'

'Whatever. Also, is it fine if Roy joins us for tomorrow? Family stuff I don't want to get into.'

Friday's had become a thing for us since she had randomly found my I-Pod one day over the summer at the park, randomly, and blackmailed me into musical training nights to help her, since she had found all the soundtracks and knew I didn't want anyone else to find out. She had soon learned I was really unknowledgeable about a lot of Broadway, and was aghast. Friday's had turned into nights of us watching musicals.

Then I decided that instead of dealing with her looking down on me for my lack of Broadway knowledge, I started bringing in the old movies my dad used to collect and had left in the house. It was a ritual of ours, the one night we really put up with each other.

'I can barely stand you,' I typed, 'I only do because I can't watch musicals with the guys I skate with. Now I have to deal with him. He's gayer than the ACTUAL gay guys.'

'Don't be a dick.'

'Whatever. As long as he calms down on the metrosexuality. It's not even me being homophobic, it's just that his style of flamboyancy is literally the most irritating thing in the world.'

'I promise he'll be just as flamboyant as always. See you at glee.'

'See ya.'

Dana's POV

Saturday night, I was having my first sleepover. Ever. That's really just sad.

"Try it lower, your singing voice is low for a girl," Mira instructed. I tried to lower my 'Do Re Mi's but it really just came out flat. I gave up halfway through, groaning and throwing my face into a pillow.

"You're getting better, Dana, don't worry about it. We've been at this forever, though, why don't we chill on it. I'm gonna go get something to drink, you want something?"

"Just water, thanks," I told her. She left.

I raised my head of the people and sat up straight on Mira's bed. Mira's room was nice, not too small. The walls, instead of being covered in posters had quotations written all over them. Some were song lyrics or books quotes I knew, others were famous quotes from famous people. Some others I couldn't place.

The book quotes intrigued me, and I found myself at her bookshelf, seeing what she had. There were a lot of really good books. But the thing that caught my eye was a Shugo Chara manga. It fascinated me because Shuga Chara wasn't something really popular, like Sailor Moon. The anime hadn't even been translated to English. Which meant she probably actually knew something about anime. I made a mental note to talk to her about it.

I continued to look through her books, somewhat disappointed that most of her manga was all shoujo (look it up.)

At the bottom of the bookshelf, packed in tight with all the books, was a shoebox. Curiosity got the better of me and like a rude house guest, I took the box out and opened it. Inside it was a pile of photos.

I jumped when I heard Mira's voice say, "Dana?"

All the blood went to my faces, enough rushing to my head to make me dizzy. "Oh! Oh my God, sorry, I just…" I trailed off, not knowing what to say. I tried again, "I didn't mean to be nosy or anything."

To my immense relief, she laughed a little. "It's fine. Not like I've got anything super secret for you to find. You can look at those if you want."

She sat down on her bed and I took a seat next to her, with the box in hand. She handed me a glass of water, which I set on her nightstand. With just a moment's hesitation, I reached into the box and began to sift through the photos.

The ones on top were, predictably, the newest. One of the first ones I saw was a strip of Mira, a pretty brown-haired girl, Davy, and Lavi all trying to squish into one photobooth. "Who's the girl?" I asked.

Mira scowled. "Ex-girlfriend, awful girl."

"Oh," I was a little surprised. "So you're-"

"Bi," she said, before I could finish the question. "Like Davy. We actually discovered the existence of bisexuality at the same time, just surfing around the interwebs. We both saw it and had a combined epiphany of 'Oh, so that's what I am.' I was actually rather funny."

I nodded to her story before going back to the box. There were a few older photos that had risen to the top of the pile, lots of young photos of Mira and a boy I didn't recognize. She identified him as her brother for me. In a lot of the photos there was a plump, pleasant looking woman with the same hair color as Mira, and a man with a smile that looked just like Mira's. She identified them as her parents.

I n all the preteen photos they were gone. I'm too observant for my own good and mentioned this.

Mira told me what happened. She had been in the fifth grade. Her parents had done out for their anniversary, leaving her and her brother Joseph to babysit her. On the way home, a drunk driver blew a light and crashed into their care. He survived, Mira's parents didn't. They had been just a mile away from home.

Mira told me this all very calmly, in the manner of someone who's told a story so many times they've been desensitized to it. She shrugged off what I'm sure were suck-y attempts to comfort her. She said it didn't matter, that she'd long since accepted it. And anyway, she told me, her life wasn't bad. They owned the house she lived in when they died, and her brother had taken care of her since. He was quite a bit older than her, and was old enough to take care of the two of them when the accident had happened.

She directed me back to the photos, which I continued to look through. In what seemed to be earlier middle school years, Mira was pictured with a boy that was most definitely Davy, who always had brace-faced grins, and Riley, who was grinning along with him and Mira. Around the time Lavi started showing up in the pictures, Davy's braces were gone, so he couldn't have gotten them off that long ago.

There was another girl who popped up in a lot of the pictures. Never the ones with Lavi in them. "Who's that?" The girl had long wavy blonde hair, almost the same shade of blonde as Davy's. Her eyes were bright green, and she had a round face. With all of his baby fat, Davy's face looked quite like hers. "She looks a lot like Davy."

"Yeah, a lot of people say that. She was a friend, not around anymore." Her tone was such that it cut of that line of conversation, and I was sure there was something to it that I didn't want to make her talk about, especially after already having her tell me about her parents.

An awkward silence fell over the room. I put the box to the side and tried to think of something harmless to say. Goddamn am I just terrible at human interaction.

The X-box caught my eye. "You have an X-Box?" I pointed to the console.

"Yeah," she told me. "You play Halo?" Her face suddenly lit up with a grin.

"Of course." I grinned back at her, glad to have something in common.

"I challenge you to a Slayer match."

"Challenge accepted."

As I played against her, and overwhelming sense of pure happiness came over me. I had next to no friend; literally, one friend. I had always wished I was less socially awkward, but still, I had also had a pretty low opinion of the entirety of Lima, which made making friends hard. Having a friend, and a girl this time, sitting next to me just felt purely amazing.

And even though we were in that awkward stage of not knowing everything, not knowing what to and what not to say, I could still see that there was so much on the side of us actually working together. The walls of her room, the books in her book case, the controllers in our hands, they were all signs of that. Her enthusiasm about everything just drew me to her, and it seemed like she liked _something _about me.

One of the pretty girls liked me, that was amazing. And it was true, she was a pretty girl. It was weird to me; pretty girls don't hang out with plain ones, not in my mind.

I wasn't quite sure that I was supposed to feel that much happiness based on gaining a friend, but what would I know, I hadn't made enough friends to be a judge of that.

#

Luka's POV

I was on my way to the glee club, rushing along through the hallways and trying my best not to think about anything besides what we were going to be doing this week when I ran into Kiki.

"Hey Luka," she said, walking along beside me. "How was your weekend?"

Kiki and I didn't know each other much. I mean, we knew who the other was, even before glee, because I hung out with one of the photography girls. But the only experience I'd had with Kiki before glee club was kind of embarrassing.

"Boring," I lied with a shrug. Even though me, her, Maria, and Ally had formed a little group in glee club and I could tell that Kiki had good friend potential, I wasn't exactly ready to spill my heart out about how much the person I loved managed to make me feel like shit in one weekend. It wasn't anything new, anyway. I could deal with it myself. "How was yours?"

"Alright. Boring," she responded. "I'm heading to photography before glee, I forgot my stuff earlier and I promised o hand it in at the end of the day."

"I'll come with you."

When we entered the room, Mr. Miller was helping Amy fiddle around with a camera. The two of them were discussing technical stuff I didn't really understand, and didn't particularly want to. Amy glanced up from the camera and caught my eye, before immediately going back to her discussion. I felt my heart jumped and silently chastised myself for my ridiculousness.

Kiki dropped the stuff on Mr. Miller's desk and we walked out. Just a few steps down the hallway I heard Amy call, "Wait!" and again my heart skipped.

"Hang on a sex," I said to Kiki, who nodded and stopped walking. I went over to Amy and stood, arms folded over my chest and trying my best not to get distracted by all the colors in her wide hazel eyes. "What is it?"

"I broke up with Nick," she told me with a blank voice.

My heart sped up and I tried my best not to show it. "And?"

"So you can stop obsessing over it. Also, someone needs to take over his responsibilities, now that I am morbidly single," Amy informed me.

It felt like a kick in the stomach. "Amy, I'm not your whore to march out for sexual frustration. All you want is to fool around until another boy comes along, and then you'll drop me just like that. You know how I feel about you, do you really think I _enjoy_ this?"

Amy clicked her tongue impatiently and brushed a strand of dyed pink hair out of her eyes. "What do you want from me? I'm a girl, therefore I date guys."

"Thank you so much for that. Very sensitive."

Amy rolled her eyes. "I'm not here to be sensitive. Anyway, who else are you going to get, Luka? No girl will get near you, and it's not even common knowledge you a lesbo."

"Not exactly a secret, either," I grumbled. This was all just typical Amy. She needed to get over her girl-boy image of relationships, honestly. Why she thought she needed a guy, I would never understand, especially since every guy she attracted as a total dickbag.

"Whatever, fine, you don't want to help me. Come over tomorrow and assist me with dyeing my hair at least. I'll do yours too, the purple's washing out."

"Yeah, yeah." I mumbled in response, not looking her in the eye. I knew exactly what was going to happen the next day. And it wasn't just going to be hair dyeing. I knew I didn't have the self control to stop it, even if it would only make things worse in the end.

Amy turned on her heel and left. I went back to Kiki knowing whatever 'respect' I pretended to have myself was going to slowly be chipped away with every new encounter with Amy.

"What was that all about?" Kiki questioned.

For a moment, I wanted to tell her. Kiki knew I was a lesbian, or at least knew I liked girls, because while I didn't really broadcast it, I also didn't hide it, and the short time in glee club had been enough for the topic to come up. Especially with all the freaking gays in that club. And Kiki at least knew about Amy's habits seeing as how Kiki's first experience with me was walking in on Amy and I in a…heated situation. Kiki had been sworn to secrecy and had never mentioned anything to me. It was one of the reasons I saw potential in Kiki as a friend; I could tell she wouldn't spill any secrets.

I chose not to say anything. A week did not constitute friendship as much as companionship. She probably didn't want to hear anything about it. And the situation was all my fault anyway.

"Oh, it was nothing."

#

"Alright kids, settle down," Mr. Shue stopped our conversations and everyone resituated themselves in their seats so they were facing him. "I have decided your assignment for the week…"

#

_A/n: Thank you for reading, and I hope you'll review!_


	4. Sweet Talk 101

Losers Like Us

Chapter Four

Sweet Talk 101

_You have a jump in your step_

_But a rip in your, a rip in your rep_

**-Cute Is What We Aim For-**

_So here's what you missed on Glee:_

_Lavi thinks that Maria needs a man so he asked Dylan who wasn't interested, but at least he was nice about it "She's too upfront, it would be like dating a dude, which would be weird. No offense." Mira's parents died a long time ago and she has been living with her older brother. Also, the number of straight kids in this club is going down fast. Is everyone in this club gay? _

_And that's what you missed on__GLEE._

#

Jake's POV

"Duets. Or more accurately, partner work," Mr. Shuester informed us of our assignment. "Not necessarily everything a duet can imply. The important part is that I want you guys to work together. Now I know you've put together a group number already but I really think you guys need to get to know each other to do well together."

Mr. Shue had barely stopped talking when Davy scouted out, "I call Dylan!"

"Aw screw you!" Lavi smacked his arm.

"Later," Davy responded with a cheeky grin.

Oh man, why? "Can you guys not?" I directed to the two. "Be so obvious all the time, I mean."

Lavi opened his mouth to make some retort, probably, but Mr. Shuester interrupted us with a simple, disapproving, "Boys," and a pointed look. The three of us shut up and looked to the front.

Inwardly I knew that I couldn't have expected a different response but what can I say, they seriously make me uncomfortable.

Next to me, Dylan muttered, "I guess I don't get a say in this."

Apparently, he was right, because Mr. Shue was writing Dylan and Davy's names next to each other on the board. "Now you guys can choose whoever you want, but for the purposes of the assignment, you shouldn't pick someone you've known for a long time."

"Dana!" Mira called out. The blonde girl jumped in her seat and turned her head to Mira. "Work with me!" Dana blinked a couple of times before nodding to her. Mira left her seat an went across the room to the other girl.

Maria ended up pairing off with Lavi, Luka with Nate, and Kiki with Riley, leaving myself, Sunny, Ally, and Roy without partners.

"I can't work with Jacob," Sunny said thoughtfully, before turning to Ally, "I'll work with you! We'll have fun, Ally." Ally looked completely horrified.

"That's fine, I'll work with Jake," Roy looked up at me, "That's fin, right?"

No, it wasn't fine, he was one of the last people I wanted to work with but, knowing I didn't really have much choice, I said, "Whatever," with a shrug.

#

Kiki's POV

Riley and I both had the same free period the next day, so we met in the choir room to start working on our number. Whatever it was going to be. I won't lie, I was feeling pretty apprehensive, because I wasn't sure how this was supposed to work with Riley's little problem.

The two of us say there awkwardly as he scrolled through his IPod and I shuffled some paper around. After about five minutes I spoke up, "Well, this is going to be fun."

He gave me a look, sighed, and type something into a note on his IPod, handing it to me. It read, 'We could sign a song.'

I thought for a moment. I'd seen videos of people signing songs on Youtube, and I'd even tried to imitate it (unsuccessfully) a couple time. It was pretty interesting, and could look really cool. And it would definitely be something the others weren't doing. So I said to Riley, "You know what? That could be cool. Just be ready to type up _everything_."

He grinned a little and typed to me. "I'm used to it."

#

Sunny's POV

I hummed to myself as I skipped down the hallway towards the locker room. The bell had just rung and we had about twenty minutes to get to our respective clubs. I chose to use my time to place my extra Cheerio uniform and spare clothes in my gym locker.

I danced into the locker room and to my locker, absentmindedly listening to the girls who were in there already talking mindlessly about music and teachers and TV shows. It was a buzzing in the background as I put my things away. But then I heard a name and a series of unkind words. Closing my locker and replacing my lock I stepped over to where my two friends, Evaline and Lacy, where talking not so kindly about a certain skateboarding delinquent I knew.

"Didn't you guys like, totally have a crush on Dylan last year," I questioned, cocking my head to the side. The two of them turned to me with their penciled in eyebrows scrunched.

"Well, yeah, but that was before," Evaline rolled her eyes.

"There's something _totally_ not hot about a guy who likes guys. I mean, ew, that's just not right," Lacy made a 'yuck' face.

"Hey, don't you guys think you're being kinda mean, in a like, not okay way? Anyway Dylan's so not gay," I mean, how obvious was _that_?

Evaline sneered. "Well of course you would defend your stupid little Glee Club buddies."

I should have known the looks on their faces and _run_ right there and then. I'd seen them turn this look on other people before. But I still saw them as my friends, who could be mean sometimes, but always went back to babbling with me.

"Of course, because she's one of them. What a useless club," Lacy said.

"It shouldn't even be here. It's just taking our hard earned funds."

"No self-respecting Cheerio would be part of it."

"She can't possibly be a real Cheerio."

"Not at all. She doesn't deserve to wear that uniform."

They looked at each other and before I knew it they were on me, and I was kicking and fighting against them as they scratched at me and my uniform. I had athleticism from Cheerios but they did too, and there were two of them. When they finally stood, my uniform was destroyed, half torn off, the zipper on my top broken.

Evaline grabbed her water bottle full of Coach's special concoction, and dumped it over my head. I could smell it as it slid cold throw my hair and down my neck.

I think I was in a state of disbelief. I couldn't comprehend what had just happened, and so fast. The two were gone for a full minute before I robotically stood, finding my way to the sink and washing my hair out methodically. I grabbed my spare clothes, stripping off my torn uniform and replacing it. I caught the image of myself in the mirror. Me, plain, hair unstyled and wet, my uniform missing, my face a reflection of the shocked and emotionless face I'd seen those two create too many times, like the life and feeling had been sucked out, leaving a broken shell. My uniform gone, torn and shoved in my locker. I felt pressure behind my eyes and my throat began to burn.

I ran to the choir room as fast as I could.

Maria's POV

I walked into the choir room to find a very uncomfortable looking Jake patting the back of a crying Sunny. I went over to where Ally, Luka, and Kiki sat, heads together, talking quietly. "What happened to her?" I asked in a hushed voice.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I've got an idea," Luka answered. We all leaned in closer to her. "You know those bitchy Cheerio girls, Evaline and Lacy?"

"Ugh, I hate those two," Ally groaned.

"You hate everyone," I reminded her.

She shot me a look. "Tell me you don't hate them too."

I had to give her that one. The pair of them were pretty well known for being the bitchiest girls in the grade. Sunny was the third member of the lead popular girl trio, and there had been many a class period spent wondering just _how_ that girl ended up with two friends like that.

"Well," Luka added, before we could get too distracted, "obviously you know we're at the bottom of the social change. Where most of us were already. And you know Sunny's somehow been hanging on to her spot at the top, probably because she's just so ridiculously nice, but that can only get you so far…"

Kiki made a soft noise, "Oh gosh, I have a bad feeling of where this is going…"

Luka pulled a face, and I had a feeling that the story was just going to be a little sad. "Those two, apparently decided to kick Sunny to the bottom and you know she's so naive she probably never saw it coming. It must have been a huge reality check to her."

I looked over my shoulder to Sunny. She was wiping her eyes on her sleeve while Jake rubbed small circles on her back and Davy sat backwards in a seat in front of her with a big smile and what I assume were optimistic words. Sunny was nodded along and as Davy said something a few teary laughs made there way out of her.

"Well she deserves it."

The three of us, Luka, Kiki, and I all shot Ally general 'what is wrong with you' looks.

"Ally, you can't honestly believe that she deserves the type of shit those two do to entertain themselves," Luka said.

"Oh please," Ally responded scathingly, "save it. Sunny was always there along with them and just stood along quietly while they went through there bullshit. She's just as bad as her _friends_."

"I know what you mean, Ally," I said, "but I really don't think she ever meant anything bad. I honestly don't think she could be mean if she wanted to, I just don't think she ever really realized how shitty they are. You know what I mean?" I looked to Luka, because I knew she was the most likely to understand what I was trying to say.

She shrugged and said, "Sunny has always been really sweet."

"Oh my God, you totally had a crush on her, didn't you?" Kiki said with a grin.

Luka blushed vividly red and mumbled some unintelligible. That forced a laugh out of even Ally.

By the time Mr. Shue was in the room, Sunny wasn't crying any more, and the same blank sort of look she usually had was making it's way onto her face. Lavi and I preformed her song, and I stopped paying any attention to what was going on with the girl. I was too caught up in the performance. I don't mean to brag but Lavi and I sounded pretty awesome. Everyone else was going to have a hard time following that one up.

#

Ally's POV

I was thinking about the massive amounts of homework I had been given that day and debating whether or not I was actually going to do it, even though I knew the answer was no, I was so not going to even bother, when a fucking obnoxious ball of blonde jumped in front of me and cut me off on my way to the door. "Hey Ally!" Sunny chirped, and her voice felt like a freaking nail to the head.

"You're blocking the exit," I stated, pushing past her and mentally begging her to just leave me the hell alone.

"But Ally, we need to talk! We have to figure out what we're singing."

Jeez, can't this girl take a freaking hint? I rolled my eyes, marching down the hallway. I could hear the slap of her sneakers, those special white sneakers all the cheerleaders wore, as she followed behind me.

"Ally, where are you going? Oh never mind, have you come up with anything?"

My lord, how hard is it to figure out that I was so freaking disinterested in anything to do with her. "Look," I spoke through clenched teeth, "I don't want to do this with you."

"Well we have to, it's our assignment," she said it like it was the simplest thing in the world and how could I _not_ understand her?

"Fuck it. I don't care about the lecture we'll get, and a lecture is all we'll get."

"Ally that's not right."

Well fuck, if she was going to say things like that, I wasn't about to just ignore her anymore. I stopped suddenly and whipped around to confront the girl. "And what would _you_ know about what's right? You sit back and watch those fucking bitches and do nothing. If you knew anything about what's _right_ you'd have stopped them at some point. If you actually know what's right, then you're worse than I thought you were. I just thought you were fucking stupid."

She blinked and for one angry moment I thought she was going to act like she didn't know exactly what I was talking about. Her words showed she did. "Well, those two are my friends. You back up your friends, everyone does, even if they aren't exactly right." I could hear it in her voice, that little hint of strain. She was forcing herself to believe it, silly little popular girl.

I laughed. It was cruel, I knew that, but I laughed at her. Like I cared what it made her feel, maybe she'd begin to understand when the cruelty was turned on her. She was at the bottom of the social ladder now, she'd have to feel it sometime. "Friends? Those girls aren't your friends. You're falling off your pedestal, Sunny Monagen. You're ridiculous, I can't wait until you know what it feels like, Sunny. Do you know what the things they've done have _done_ to kids? They've _destroyed_ people Sunny. But you're high up, you don't have to deal with that/"

Sunny's face suddenly got very solemn. More solemn than I thought she was capable of, and it shocked me into silence, shocked me out of my tirade for a moment. "You're going to do that too, aren't you? I hate that; I'm never allowed to be sad, am I?"

"Fuck, Sunny, look at yourself. You ran into the fucking choir room crying like a baby and you had everyone on you immediately ready to comfort you. What, so the bitches trip you at lunch, or say you aren't on their fucking caliber anymore? No, Sunny, you have no right to talk about being upset, and you've got no right to pretend you any better than those two. But karma's a bitch, sunny, and you're on my level now, the lowest. No one wants us. You're not sitting on top anymore." I was feeling far too satisfied.

"Well," Sunny gathered herself up and held her chin high with that air of "popular" girl authority and a sense of surety in her voice, "You're still wrong. Glee club wants us. These levels of you've made up, we're all on the bottom together, and we've been having so much fun there, don't you think? That doesn't seem like the bottom of anything. Aren't you the one who gave a speech about labels last year? These levels of yours are the same."

She turned and marched off, leaving me in a state of shock. I couldn't believe that she remembered that speech. I hardly thought anyone had been listening to me when I gave it. It had been an English class assignment, to give a speech about something we felt strongly about, anything.

It had been a last ditch effort, a last plea that we all just forget the social scenes and be _civil_ to each other for Christ's sake. After I had given up on my high school dreams, but before I had gotten really cynical. Before I dyed my hair black in a fit of rage. Before I started circling my eyes in wide rings of black. Before everything was just so freaking shitty in my eyes, while I'd still had my foolish hope to hold onto. Before I made myself the opposite image of everything I was learning to hate.

I thought everyone had forgotten that speech. I never believed anyone would keep that naïveté. I underestimated Sunny Monagen.

Dana's POV

Mira and I were sitting in the auditorium, cross-legged on the stage, going through our I-pods. We still hadn't managed to settle on a song.

"Why is every song in existence about failed relationships?" I questioned, quickly becoming irritated with my music.

"Because everyone can relate to it," Mira responded simply without looking up from her I-pod.

"Not if they haven't had a relationship," I pointed out, "aka, if they're me."

Mira looked up, most likely because of the tone of my voice. "You're a month into high school. It's not that bad to have not dated before."

I shrugged. "I know that. I still get annoyed by it. But you've dated before, right?" I recalled the photo strip I'd seen before, Mira and a brown-haired girl with Davy and Lavi.

"Yeah. Her."

"I take it that didn't go so well."

"Nope." Mira popped the 'p' and looked back at her music. "Her name was Ella, and she had this crazy idea that she could do no wrong. And she had all these little pet peeves that didn't seem to matter at first, but they turned into these huge things. Apparently _everything_ about me was offensive to her in some way. Everything I did she had an issue with. I couldn't do anything without her correcting me. So I ended it."

Mira shrugged. "It wasn't a big deal. I liked her, but it wasn't anything tragic. Though she did manage to successfully cause me some complexes I've had to repair."

"See, my boy problems are the opposite."

Mira looked up to me with a spark in her eye that concerned me a little. "Boy problems? Tell me all about it!"

"_This_ is why my only friend is a guy. Guys don't talk about their feelings."

"Obviously you haven't been hanging out with Davy." We both laugh for a moment, and then she was on it again, "C'mon, please tell me?"

I sighed before giving in. "Alright, alright. So I've got this friend Stephen, who I've known forever. I met him at karate. We were best friends and then in like sixth grade, my mind decided it'd be an awesome idea to develop a crush. But to him I was like one of the guys. And he's into the pink loving, make up doing, skirt wearing girls. And that's not me.

"I tried to make it me. I went through my wardrobe and bought all sorts of make-up. But since he was my best friend he noticed something was up. And when he confronted me about it I just kinda broke down and told him about my uber crush. I'm over it now, though," I added. "I guess all that just kinda made it go away. He's like a brother to me now. And I don't feel like being with anyone I have to overhaul for, anyway."

Mira grinned. "Good attitude, girly. You know, I think I know what song we should sing."

#

I didn't feel entirely comfortable with starting the song off, but Mira had finally managed to convince me.

_"Oh no, don't go changing,_

_ That's what you told me from the start,_

_ Thought you were something different,_

_ That's when it all just fell apart."_

It was weird. When I first heard the song, I wasn't so fond of it, but singing it, I could really get into it. I felt…something….when I sang it. And all I could think of was the look on Stephen's face when he had confronted me about my ridiculousness.

Mira sang her part,

_"Like you're so perfect,_

_ And I can't measure up._

_ Well I'm not perfect,_

_ Just all messed up."_

There was a look on Mira's face and a slight tone in her voice, and I could tell that while I was thinking of Stephen, she was definitely thinking of her ex-girlfriend.

We sang the chorus together, my voice lower than hers. I had to sing loud to be good, and I knew Mira was pushing her voice to be as loud as mine. She flat out old me she naturally sang better when she sang quieter, but since she had more skill than me…

_"I was losing myself to somebody else_

_ But now I see_

_ I don't wanna pretend_

_ So this is the end of you and me."_

With the next few lines came a well of emotion I hadn't quite expected.

_"'Cause the girl that you want_

_ She was tearing us apart,_

_ 'Cause she's everything_

_ Everything I'm not."_

At the end of the song, I was feeling pretty damn good. The rest of the club clapped and cheered and Mira, with an indescribable look in her eyes, threw her arms around me and hugged me tight. I could feel in the grip that she had on me that the song had a stronger effect on her than it did on me, and I wondered if she was as over everything with her ex as she liked to tell me she was.

We were followed up by Nate and Luka who did an awesome and somewhat hilarious rendition of "Beverly Hills" that got us all up and dancing, and damn, it really felt just plain _good_ to be surrounded by these people.

#

Riley's POV

I walked out of the room, taking note, with amusement, at Davy grabbing Dylan and half tossing him back into his seat. I sped my steps a little to catch up to Kiki where she was walking ahead of me with Luka and Maria. I came up between Luka and Kiki, leaving Maria on the other side of Luka.

She looked at me curiously, "What's up, Riley?"

I sent her a text that said, "Change of plans, doctor's appointment tomorrow. Can't work on the song. Gotta do it today."

"Oh," Kiki's eyebrows furrowed a little. "Can we go to your house?"

While I typed out the next message Maria said, "This conversation is super awkward." Luka smacked her. I looked up and gave her a smile and a nod. "See, he agrees with me so it's okay."

"You still shouldn't say it, Maria," Luka scolded her. I gave her a nudge with my shoulder and a smile. After a while, you begin to get used to conveying your messages with your body as opposed to words. And I'd had a lifetime.

I heard the sound of Kiki's phone as she got my message. "My house is no good. Parents won't be home, and they'll be pissed if I have someone over. Only exception to that ever is Davy. You're a girl soooo…"

"Oh," was Kiki's only response and she looked like she was searching for something else to say.

"Can't we go to your house? Possibly?" I typed out quickly and this time I just handed her the phone, to avoid the waiting period as the message actually sent.

Kiki's eyebrow furrowed and she mumbled, "My house…" I might have imagined it, I mean she was on the other side of Luka, but it seemed like Maria tensed a little. "Uh yeah, sure, I suppose. It's close by, we can walk. I was going to anyway."

I smiled and nodded, and Kiki gave me a smile that looked a little bit forced. We had reached the entrance of the school, and Luka and Maria gave the both of us goodbyes, before going to their rides.

Kiki and I walked along in silence. It wasn't the comfortable silence that I had with Davy or Mira, or even Lavi. It was the type of tense silence that I would have broken if I could. It was moments like that I wouldn't to be able to speak. It wasn't very often that I wished I could, it really didn't bother me much that I couldn't. But somehow, I could tell she was thinking about something, something that was making her tense, from the way she walked and wouldn't look at me. It was in moments like those that I really wished I could bring up some light subject and talk about that.

Kiki didn't live far away. She led me to the condos, the only set of condos in town. I was a little surprised, which is probably just the white middle-class in me. I automatically put everyone in houses in my mind.

Kiki unlocked the door and motioned for me to go ahead of her. The room I entered was a clean mess. By that I mean that you could tell it wasn't dirty, it wasn't gross, but there was stuff everywhere. There was laundry thrown over the couch, on an ironing board, in a basket on the ground, there were magazines strewn across a table, and a few spread over the floor. There was just a mass of _stuff_ everywhere.

"Sorry," Kiki mumbled, "didn't expect anyone, ya know. C'mon." I nodded and followed her to the couch. She grabbed some stuff and tossed it on a chair to make room for us to sit.

As I got into showing her some signs and trying to explain what we were doing without having to type a huge-ass amount of words, the awkwardness began to fade. Kiki was a pretty quick learner, especially for someone who had never signed before.

About halfway through, when I was trying to work out some signs and Kiki was practicing the ones I had already shown her, the door to the condo flew open and someone rushed in, flying past me and into the kitchen area in a flash of color.

"Jacky, what are you doing home?" Kiki said, with an odd choke to her voice.

"I left paperwork for the coffee shop here!" a girl walked out of the kitchen with some papers in hand. She was tall and thin, with long dark brown hair and the same mocha skin tone as Kiki. She was dressed in the sort of neon colors that just sort of _hurt_ to look at and she was looking at me with a spark in her eye that was a little terrifying. "Oh, you're having a boy over."

I looked to Kiki, trying to send her the message _"help!"_ with my eyes.

"Jacky," Kiki said, "we're doing a project for Glee."

"Alright, just make sure that singing is as gleeful as it gets, got it?" she said sharply to me.

I nodded.

"I wanna hear it, boy."

I looked to Kiki who snapped at Jacky, "He can't talk. Leave my friends alone, would ya?"

"Oh," I saw Jacky's cheeks darken a little, "well, I'll be going back to the shop then." She rushed out.

Kiki sighed. "Sorry about that, Riley."

I shook my head and waved it off. I pulled out my phone and texted her, "When do your parents get home?"

She pulled out her phone and got paler as she read the message. "Uh, yeah I live with Jacky."

"Oh, I'm sorry, did something happen?" I felt sort of bad bringing it up, if something had happened to her parents, but at the same time, it was probably best to figure out what happened so I wasn't accidently offensive somehow or something.

Kiki stared at the phone for half a minute before saying, "We were having…money trouble. Dad moved for work and Mom went with him to find some herself. I'm living with Jacky 'cause I didn't want to move to a new town."

"Oh. But you guys are doing okay, yeah?" I texted back. I mean it didn't seem _glamorous_ but Kiki was clearly eating and living in legit housing and wearing clean clothes. It wasn't anything bad, at all.

Kiki looked a little…surprised. "Yeah, we are. And I like living with Jacky, as annoying as she is," Kiki let out a little laugh. "We should probably get back to work."

I grinned and nodded.

#

Ally's POV

A brief discussion with Ally had told me what song she had decided we were going to sing, what parts I would learn, and just how this was going to work. She planned on us seeing each other for as little time as possible and none of my protests that we should actually, like, practice a decent amount had done anything. So we got to the choir room ten minutes before the others to practice it once through, so Ally could correct me if I had messed up any of my parts.

What had I even done to her? Or to anyone?

But it was alright. And the song choice wasn't bad, even if it wasn't my style. It was a song I had heard when I was younger, since I had listened to the singer when I was younger. It hadn't meant anything to me. Not until I sang it beside Ally.

Ally, started singing, her elbow on the piano and her head rested in her hand, staring away from me as she sang,

"_All that I did was walk over_

_ Start off by shaking your hands_

_ That's how it went_

_ I had a smile o my face, and I sat up straight."_

I found my mind wandering, which wasn't a new thing for me. I was thinking back. In sixth grade, Ally had been in my homeroom class, hadn't she? Looking at her singing instead of arguing or drawing weirdly depressing things in her notebook I could remember that. She looked different when she sang; I could see her the way she had been back then.

We had talked on the first day of school, once, a short conversation. I had already known who I was going to be then, who I was supposed to be friends with, what impressions I was supposed to make. Its weird all the random stuff that pops in your head while you're singing.

I sang my part,

"_Oh, yeah, yeah."_

Ally's eyes flicked to me for just a moment before she sang,

_"I wanted to know you,_

_ I wanted to show you,"_

Then we sang together, my voice high and airy above her own strong voice,

"_You don't know me,_

_ Don't ignore me_

_ You don't want me there_

_ You just shut me out,"_

Our voices were very different, hers low and rough, and compliment to my sweet and soft voice, and they mixed well together. That was what choir was about, right, mixing different voices to a pleasant sound? I wouldn't know, the cheerleaders only, well, cheered. And the only thing I'd ever been in or they'd ever been in besides cheering was gymnastics or dance. Those were the acceptable companions to cheering.

_"You don't know me_

_ Don't ignore me_

_ If you had your way _

_You'd just shut me out_

_Make me go away."_

Now I know that I can miss important signals from my peers sometimes, I'm not completely oblivious. I think I at least managed to understand the message that Ally wanted to convey in her song. I could see it in the look in her eyes when she sang. It was pretty clear that the lyrics bothered her.

I knew Evaline and Lacy kinda sucked, I'd always known. But that was just how it worked, people are mean about things and Evaline and Lacy were never horrid. Everything was always in good fun, even if it hurt a little. I always brushed it off; at least I liked to think I always brushed it off. But it all clearly got to Ally, on some level.

I found myself remembering the shock of cold ice hitting my face, the feel of Coach's special drink dripping through my hair. That had felt different than before, hadn't it? I pushed the thoughts away; they weren't something I wanted on my mind if I could avoid it.

In the end I couldn't make it go away, not entirely. The song had left me with plenty to think about, that was for sure. I was lost; I couldn't make sense of what I really thought anymore. I tried to shake it off as I sat down, between Davy and Jake. Jake gave me a nod and a little half smiled, before his smile dropped and he continued whatever argument he had been having with Kiki before Ally and I had begun singing.

Davy gave me a little smile too, saying, "That's different than I would have suspected from our resident Cheerio."

I grinned and piped out a "Thanks! Ally chose the song."

"Thought so," he responded with a laugh. "You know, your voices go together well. Shame you two probably won't sing together often."

"Why's that?"

The look he gave me was familiar; it was a look that people would often share when they thought I wouldn't noticed, when they thought they knew something I didn't and felt bad about that. No one would ever explain the look, though, so I'd stopped asking about it.

He was wrong though. Nothing was going to change my mind.

Quietly behind me, I heard someone say something to Ally. I didn't quite understand it, but I think it was something good.

Kiki's POV

"You know, Ally dear, those lyrics go both ways between the two of you," I leaned over and whispered to Ally.

She simply glared at me, and then set her attention to the front of the room, where Dylan and Davy had moved to so they could perform.

The two boys did good, doing some cocky 'look how awesome we are' song and smirking all the way through it. They were really flirty too, in a joking way, and Davy got cute at the end with Lavi. _That _ very clearly made Jake uncomfortable which at this point was really just hilarious to watch.

We were dismissed and I felt my phone vibrate. 'One new message from Riley Stewart'. I looked up at Riley, who gave me a small smile. I read the message. "You can come to my house today, after my doctor's appointment, if you'd like. We could use more practice."

I felt my face heat up. So far, I don't think Riley "said" anything to anyone about my current residence, but I had expected him to say more to me. But he hadn't mentioned it at all, he hadn't acted any different from before, and this I knew was just a kind offer because I was pretty obvious about how uncomfortable I was with having people around the house.

It was really nice, that he wasn't treating me weirdly. "Let's go," I said to him, motioning for him to follow me to the door. He nodded.

We left Roy and Jake behind in the room. Bet Jake loved that.

Jake's POV

Fuck them and leaving me alone with this kid. I didn't necessarily have a problem with him but I didn't particularly wanna hang around with him all the time either.

"What do you think Jake?"

"Huh?" The kid had been babbling on and on for ten minutes and I hadn't been paying him any attention. "I zoned out. Look, can we just ignore the assignment? I doubt Shue will kick us out for it." I made a move towards the door, but Roy grabbed me and pulled me back.

"We're doing the freaking assignment, Jacob."

"Fine, whatever. Why don't you come up with an idea for a song I might have _heard _of this time?"

Roy's POV

I was about ready to murder the boy. I mean, he was half a foot taller than me and a whole lot stronger, probably, but let's ignore that fact for a moment. Anyway, the _violent stabbing_ would probably shock him too much at first for him to react.

"Fine, whatever, we could do…" I thought for a moment and said the first name that popped into my head without any real consideration, "Adam Lambert?"

The look he gave me told me the answer was a definite no, which he confirmed saying, "Dude, no. Really?"

"What?" I raised an eyebrow. I had a feeling I knew exactly the problem with our dear Jacob. "I see a pattern here. It's because he's gay, isn't it?"

"Well, I mean…." At least the boy had the decency to look embarrassed about it, "I'm straight, so why would I sing a song by a gay dude?"

"Okay. That's stupid. If you think that, you're a freaking moron. Anyway that's an excuse and we both know it. Would you have a problem singing Elton John? 'Cause he's gay."

"No, but dude that's-"

Oh my lord he's an idiot. I cut him off, "No 'buts' there aren't any 'buts'. This is your problem with me, isn't it? You perceive me to be gay," he opened his mouth to say something, "and it's hardly worth denying, I know that pretty much everyone thinks the same thing."

"Dude, you don't have to lie, I mean I don't have a problem with it I just don't feel comfortable with it and I don't think I should be forced to be around that."

"Welcome to the world, Jacob. And how do you suppose you know my sexuality better than I do? You're basing your perception of me on stereotypes and as I'm sure you know, that's not actually an okay thing to do."

"Alright," he said, crossing his arms. Oh God, he was going to say something else ridiculous, wasn't he? "If you're really that straight then how are comfortable about it?"

"'It' is very vague, Jacob. I assume you mean one of two things. The first would be how I'm comfortable with being seen as gay, and the answer is I don't really care because I know that one, there's nothing wrong with being gay, two, there's nothing wrong with being seen as gay, and three, I'm not freaking gay. The only thing that irritates me is the judgment, but whatever."

Roy was pretty much just staring at me as I ranted. Which I had no problem with, because maybe it would give me a chance to lecture some sense into the damn boy.

"The second option is that you're asking how I'm comfortable with our resident gays, and the answer to that would be, why shouldn't I be? I'm going to go ahead and assume that you're issue is that your paranoid of unwanted attention. But do you creep on every girl you see? There are creepy guys and I'm not going to say there aren't probably creepy gay guys somewhere, but the ones we know are reasonable, Jacob."

"It's just… I mean the guys all change in the same locker room and have the same showers and stuff," Jacob, bless him, looked so very earnest. I'm pretty sure he probably thought that _I_ thought he was a dick, and that he was trying to make me understand that he wasn't an awful person. But I knew that.

"Okay, look, I understand why that would be weird. But it's not like you have anything that guys haven't seen every day of their life. Also, I personally think that any halfway decent straight guy, in a situation with a girl where they have to change around each other for whatever reason would like, avoid looking. I mean if you honestly catch someone creeping then yeah, I'd be freaked out to, but you shouldn't assume they're going to."

"It's just…" Jacob looked as though he were searching for words.

"Look, I don't expect to drastically change your viewpoint on homosexuals in one conversation, but you should seriously reconsider the way you feel. And I promise not to suggest anything too 'gay'," I put little sarcastic air quotes around that, "for our song, alright? I won't even try to convince you to dress up."

"You were going to try to get me to dress up."

I face-palmed and groaned into my hand, "Why do I feel like I've only seen the tip of this iceberg?"

#

Riley's POV

God only knows how Jake convinced Roy to sing Nickelback. The rather fabulous boy had been ranting about how much he hated the band just a week ago. Either way, though, it meant the two had been able to compromise, which was good. More than any of us expected, really.

After that, Kiki and I went. It had been Kiki's idea that we use an instrumental version of the song and that she didn't sing the words. She said it would help them fully appreciate the translation of the song to movements and I will admit, I was a bit impressed. I was also very happy with my translation, if I do say so myself, and I think that the pair of us made the song work.

Besides just picking up on the motions, Kiki was very good at the expressive faces that were necessary to go along with the signs. She seemed to truly understand how to relate things into the motion. It was something new to me. Davy and I were the only ones who really understood the language properly, even if Mira had picked up a lot and even Lavi was picking up some too. It was weird to have someone who was just learning it understand it so well, to have someone new able to really _get_ it.

Upon finishing and being let out of the class, Davy immediately ran up to me and was speaking a mile a minute about each and every sign and why I chose certain signs for certain parts and hardly giving me enough time between questions to actually answer anything. Lavi ended up just covering his mouth and telling him something a little suggestive about better uses for it than talking to me, which Dylan, who I hadn't notice was following us, responded to y telling Lavi that no one needed that information, thank you very much. Mira then agreed with Dylan and proceeded to provide a list of all the other things that those two didn't need to mention to us, in a very specific and vulgar manner.

My friends, ladies and gents.


End file.
